Big Steps in a Big Country: Brazil

Makes Fast Progress Toward EFA

Brazil is one of the few large countries in the world to make real progress toward EFA over
the course of the 1990s. Remarkably, it did this during a period of low GDP growth,
economic instability and tight budgets. Brazils success is thus an encouraging precedent for
countries facing similar constraints, and it underscores the message that by focusing on
policy reform, and making difficult choices consistent with policy objectives, countries can
achieve renewed momentum towards EFA.
May 2003
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26533
primary education. Government taxes are collected and
redistributed to provide a minimum per student expendi-
ture amount. With stable funding assured, state and
municipal secretariats are able to conduct long-term plan-
ning for their education systems. However, Brazils experi-
ence also shows the power of negative incentives, and
the unintended consequences that can result: the cre-
ation of the FUNDEF excluded preschool and inadver-
tently created a very strong incentive at the municipal
level against financing preschools. As a result, enrollment
in preschool declined by nearly two million between 1996
and 2000.
The Direct Transfers to Schools Program (PDDE) sends
money directly to schools to be spent according to their
needs. This stands in contrast to previous funding that
was disseminated from the central government. To be eli-
gible for the funds, schools must: (i) enroll more than 150
students; (ii) hold a bank account in which the funds can
be deposited; and (iii) have a school council to oversee
use of the funds. The program provides schools with
resources while empowering the community to better
spend them, shifting more power to the local level.
In some states, school directors are now being chosen
through a combination of technical examinations and
elections by the school community. By allowing communi-
ties ownership of these decisions, the communities and
their education leaders become more accountable to
each other.
Quality Issues
In conjunction with other reforms, the government is
focusing on teachers as one of the important factors of
student learning. Teachers are often poorly qualified and
underpaid, resulting in low motivation. New teacher edu-
cation programs promote assessment and evaluation. A
Teacher Education Institute (ISE) was recently established
to increase the quality of teacher education. Using an
internationally proven approach, the institute focuses on
teacher development and incentives and ensures that the
teachers have, at least, completed secondary education.
An Education Management Information System (EMIS)
has been established to collect reliable and timely data
this is of critical importance in decision-making and plan-
ning processes, including the transfer of funding to
schools. The Ministry of Education monitors and evalu-
ates its education system through surveys, data collec-
tion, and research. The results are openly available to the
public, are published on the Internet, and are dissemi-
nated throughout the country. The country conducts a
student census, student assessment tests, the evaluation
of tertiary level courses, and the secondary level student
exit examination. The National Integrated System for
Education Information (SIEd) promotes the decentraliza-
tion of the education census and its results.
The National System for Evaluation of Basic Education
(SAEB) is a standardized testing system implemented in
1995. SAEB tracks student learning in both language
skills and mathematics. The test is administered every two
years and is given to children in the 4th and 8th grades.
The National Secondary School Exam (ENEM) is adminis-
tered during the final year of secondary school.
To identify areas in which quality can be improved, Brazil
is evaluating its education system on many fronts. This
has increased awareness and improved the level of
accountability. The focus of the education debate is now
not only on inputs, but, increasingly, on learning out-
comes. The figure compares the results of 15-year-olds in
Brazil to those in OECD countries.
Brazil participated in the OECD study in part because of
its determination to increase learning quality in line with
international comparators. In spite of this new focus,
however, test scores unexpectedly declined between
1997 and 1999 in all states in the country. It is unclear
what this represents, since many input measures show
marked increases. The lower test scores could represent
growing pains, or the new reality that many are now
Percentage of Students Reaching the Median
Score for Reading and Math
math reading
OECD
Brazil
11%
50%
OECD
Brazil
4%
50%
Progress Highlights
By the year 2000, Brazil had almost achieved universal
primary enrollment for Grades 1-4, and more than 50
million Brazilians were enrolled in the countrys educa-
tion system. From 1970 to 2000, 32 million additional
students entered school, two-thirds of them during
the last two decades. Over a five-year period (1996-
2000), while primary schooling continued to make
important gains, enrollments in secondary and tertiary
education in Brazil grew at the astonishing rate of
43% and 44% respectively.
Many developing countries face problems with age-
grade distortion. Largely because of high repetition
rates, age-grade distortion in Brazil is about 10 per-
cent country-wide, and almost 40 percent in the
northeastern part of the country. An innovative pro-
gram called Accelerated Learning has been imple-
mented to address this issue. Under this program, the
federal government finances the creation of special
classes for over-aged students with the objective of
reducing the age-grade distortion and freeing up
space in public schools. By year 2000 there were
already 1.2 million students enrolled in accelerated
learning programs in all Brazilian states.
Brazil has significantly reduced education inequality
over the past decade. The gap between enrollments
of children from low- and high-income levels has
been decreasing. In 1992, enrollment of students
from low-income families was 22 percentage points
lower than for those from high-income families; this
gap has now been reduced to only six points. Gender
parity has now been largely reached for primary and
secondary schooling. An enormous gap remains at
the tertiary level, however, where only 18% of the
students are female, and this will need to be the
focus of concerted efforts for years to come.
Financing and Decentralization
For the most part, the government did not make signifi-
cant new financing available to the education sector, but
relied on reallocations from higher education and better
management of funds through formula-driven, decentral-
ized transfers for basic education. From 1995 through
1999, federal expenditure in higher education fell from
US$3.6 billion to US$3 billion, even though higher edu-
cation enrollments were expanding rapidly. This policy
remains controversial. Other funds for educational reform
came from largely eliminating negotiated transfers.
To improve accountability among its various levels, the
Ministry of Education underwent a fiscal realignment and
decentralization. The financing of education was re-
organized and the responsibilities of the three levels of
government were more sharply defined. The National
Fund for Fundamental Education Development and
Improvement of the Teaching Profession (FUNDEF) was
established. FUNDEF is the principal channel by which
funding is provided to schools. It specifically benefits
Primary School Net Enrollment Rates
1995 1999 1990 1985 1981
83%
86%
92%
97%
74%
34%
40%
50%
62%
First through Fourth Grade
Fifth through Eighth Grade
31%
Eliminating Inequality in Primary Net
Enrollments
2001 1992
99%
97%
98%
5th quintile 20% richer
4th quintile
93%
87%
83%
75%
97%
95%
94%
3rd quintile
2nd quintile 1st quintile 20% poor
coming from the poorest areas, which have historically
low enrollments and weak pre-school programs. It may
also be that the process of retooling, as new programs
are adapted and teachers learn new methods and new
approaches, is simply more complex than initially believed.
There is some evidence that scores are beginning to
rebound; a focus on continued improvements to pre- and
in-service teacher education will be critical to ensuring
that teacher motivation remains high, and that gains in
quality keep pace with gains in access to education for all
students. Similarly, it will be important to ensure that pre-
school enrollments reverse the declines of the late 90s.
Otherwise, it will be difficult to achieve needed improve-
ments in student learning while maintaining gains in
terms of equitable access to primary schooling.
Lessons Learned
A simultaneous focus on both quality and equity con-
cerns, far from being contradictory in nature, can
actually be synergisticefforts to improve quality and
equity can be mutually reinforcing
Strong leadership makes a differenceit is unlikely
that Brazil would have shown the progress it has,
without focused, determined leadership at the highest
level, including a proactive, reform-minded minister
School improvement programs must go hand in hand
with programs to ensure the availability of stable
financing at the school levelBrazils experience
shows what can be achieved when schools have con-
trol over needed resources
EFA gains will lead to pressures at higher levels of the
systemthis is a natural outgrowth of EFA efforts and
should be incorporated into EFA planning processes
Progress is not linear, and the retooling process
involved in improving quality and reaching marginal-
ized populations may even result in an initial dip in
learning outcomes.
Education in Brazil
Socio-Economic Indicators: Education Indicators:
Adult illiteracy rate (population 15 and older) 12.7% (2001)
Primary gross enrollment rate 162.3% (2000)
(48.5% of those enrolled are female)
Primary completion rate 71.3% (2000)
Secondary gross enrollment rate 108.5% (2000)
(53.3% of those enrolled are female)
Tertiary gross enrollment rate 16.5% (2000)
(18% of those enrolled are female)
Total education spending as % of GDP 4.7% (2000)
This note series is intended to summarize lessons learned and key policy findings on the World Banks work in education.
The views expressed in these notes are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank.
For additional copies of Education Notes, please contact the Education Advisory Service by email at eservice@worldbank.org
or visit the web site: http://www.worldbank.org/education/
Population (millions) 172.4 (2001)
Percent below poverty line 22%
GNP per capita US$3,070 (2001)
IDA/IBRD IBRD
PRSP No
HIPC No